Beyond Witchspace
by Delta4Phoenix
Summary: A ship modified with Guardian technology mysteriously vanishes, leaving only almost permanent FSD wake behind. This is the story of what happened to the 'Hope of the North Star' as it traveled beyond Witchspace. Elite/Avatar/Endless Space crossover, with hints towards an extended universe I plan to write.
1. Wake Scan

AN: This is going to be a long one. It will involve Thargoids, Eywa, the Guardians, a illegal AI, a certain paralysed ex marine, the Sophons, and a few others.

* * *

Wake scan complete...

Unusual wake data received...

Thargoid signature detected...

Pilots Federation registered signature detected...

Accessing database... match found...

Ship name: Hope of the North Star  
Ship id: DP010  
Commander: Delta4Phoenix  
Bounty: 0 CR  
Status: _Missing in action_

Missing ship signature identified.

* * *

 **Incoming message from Felicity Farseer...**

 _Thank you for this data, CMDR [Redacted]._

 _Based on my analysis, it seems that the 'Hope of the North Star' and a Thargoid vessel used the same hyperspace conduit. Both were probably destroyed. But that the wake persisted this long is highly unusual. Anyway. A reward for finding out what happened to CMDR Delta4Phoenix has been transferred to your account._


	2. Chapter I: The Crash

Metal groaned and grated as it was subjected to stress way beyond its design specifications. The holographic HUD was distorted and flickering, its projectors long since out of sync and out of focus. The wind was blowing through the shattered panes of reinforced glass, picking up anything that wasn't tied down. Wires sparked, and some vents were spewing smoke and fire. The small icon of the ship on the HUD indicated that multiple parts of the ship were missing, having been ripped off by the extreme aerodynamic forces.

All of this turmoil surrounded a lone figure sitting in the commanders' seat of the damaged Faulcon DeLacy Anaconda, its Remlock suit having withstood the calamity inside the cockpit. The faceplate had automatically extended, blanketing the pilots face with a thin but strong glass plate, and supplying him with oxygen straight from the small emergency tank of the suit.

The altitude indicator of the HUD was showing that the ship was in a dive if one could describe this uncontrolled descent as a dive, the ship plummeting through the night sky towards the ground, cockpit first. The G-forces keeping the pilot in blissful unconsciousness, until with a loud 'Wham', the entire ship turned, as another piece of the hull broke off, altering ships aerodynamic properties, causing it to roll continuously, allowing the pilot to regain consciousness as the G-forces forcing blood into his head lessened.

"Agh..."

His vision unclear, he slowly tightened his grip on the controls, before yanking the flight stick sharply to the side, trying to stop the roll, but the only effect it had was making a warning flash on his HUD.

 **DRIVES OFFLINE: ZERO THRUST CAPABILITY**

"Shit... I... need... agh..."

On the edge of consciousness, the pilot slowly reached out, gripping a handle under the central 'instrument' board, and pulled as hard as he could, before letting go, having pulled it out a few centimeters, causing something in the ship to whine for a moment, before the life-saving message appeared:

 **EMERGENCY THRUST: ONLINE**

Immediately, a control column, that looked like it came straight out of an ancient 21st-century plane, shot out of the floor and clicked into place. Gripping it, the pilot had to push as hard as he could to even move it, as it was directly connected to the valves of the engine system, allowing him to bypass the damaged computer systems, but also requiring a lot of physical effort to operate.

Slowly the valves opened and the roll movement of the ship slowed as the pilot let out a sigh of relief, the G-forces now only acting in one direction, the one he was used to handling. But he still had to constantly correct for turbulence or pieces of the ship falling off, as the Flight Assist could not support him while using emergency thrust.

"Let's see... 45 kilometers altitude, 635 meters per second, mostly downward. Systems... erm... shit. Shields offline, but charging, pretty much everything else... offline. Landing gear... not functional, escape pod, also not functional. That's a first."

He bit his lip, knowing he had less than 2 minutes before impact. Emergency thrust would not be able to slow him enough and all the shield boosters were offline. If he didn't do something, the ship would turn into a metal pancake upon impact.

Then a metaphorical lightbulb lit up above his head, and he quickly typed into the console on his left, modifying the shield parameters.

"If I just modify the shape a bit... there."

Then he pushes forward on the control stick, causing the nose of the ship to pitch down. With a slightly distorted 'Ping' the shields came back online, but instead of the usual bubble it formed two simple triangles on the sides of the ship, acting as simple wings, catching the wind and generating some lift.

"Aaand pull uup..."

Putting his hands back onto the stick, he forced the ship's nose up, slowing the fall, but also creating more strain on the ship, as the makeshift wings transferred the strain to the shield generator, causing it to pull on the remaining structure of the ship, provoking some concerning groans from the reinforced alloys.

"Just a little longer, you can do it, I know it."

Suddenly, there was a sharp tearing sound as another part ripped off, and the ship pitched down _hard_. The pilots pulled as much as he could on the controls, but the ship didn't pitch up. Grimacing, the pilot stared at the altitude indicator, which showed that he was just 15 kilometers over the ground, and with an airspeed of around 600 meters per second, he needed to think of something.

After he realized the ship would keep pitching down like this, and that the maneuvering thrusters weren't strong enough to counter it, he suddenly pulled the control column to the side with all the force he had left, making the ship roll slowly, until it was inverted, where he stopped the roll, allowing the ship to stabilize, using the nose down tendency to his advantage. At this point, the ship had slowed down enough that the wind wasn't deafening anymore, and with most of the primary systems of the ship offline, it was suddenly very quiet in the cockpit, as the ship steadily approached the dark clouds below.

"Come on, you can do it. One last flight. One last landing. You can do this, old girl. Just a bit fur- what the?!"

Suddenly the ships warning systems started to beep, warning the pilot of an impending collision with a massive object while being 11 kilometers in the air. Which, understandably, confused the pilot just a _little_ bit, causing him to instinctively pull on the column, wanting the ship to pitch up, but since the ship was inverted, the nose pitched _down_ , at least in reference to the outside world, making the ship trade height for speed.

Even in the pitch black of the night, he could see a shadow of _something_ on the clouds beneath. But before he could ponder the strange object in the sky, the clouds beneath flashed, a cloud to cloud lightning briefly illuminating the ship, creating an image the pilot would never forget. Among a lot of other damage, the left large hardpoint was completely exposed, the plates covering it were missing, leaving a jagged hole with the blue crystals of the guardian weaponry stowed inside clearly visible. The nose was half-melted, the metal having been pushed back in its weakened state. That could also explain the sudden nose-down. On the sides, one could clearly observe the metals wave-like shape, while on the top there was only a jagged hole. In the darkness of this planets moonless night, he had missed this piece of the ship breaking off right in front of him.

Pushing a button on the normal controls, he tried to activate the lights of the ship, in hopes of seeing a bit more as the ships started to enter the layer of clouds, swallowing what little light from the stars there was. With a sputter, one of the two lights turned on, still flickering, but it was better than no light at all. Tensing, the pilot got ready for anything. Not only could a lightning strike hit the 'wings', but icing could also pose a danger.

Without warning, the altitude indicator jumped from 10 kilometers to 500 meters. Going wide-eyed, the pilot watched in horror as trees appeared in his field of view, their tips being visible through the dense layer of clouds. Knowing that he lacked the velocity to evade them, he rolled the ship again, so it was upright again, the lower airspeed allowing him to keep the ship stable, even as the hull and wings started the impact trees.

 _50_

The radio altimeter started to voice the remaining height in meters as the ship came closer to ground, a lake coming into view, just as the shields collapsed, robbing the ship of its wings, not that it mattered at this point.

 _40_

 _30_

 _20_

 _10_

"Heh. Goodbye."

The ship hit the water traveling well over 200 meters per second, the force of the impact instantly knocking the pilot out, as the ship bounced off of the water, before coming down again, slowing to a stop and quickly taking on water, as it poured in through all the holes in the hull.


	3. Interlude I: A new Anaconda

Location: Sirius System, Patterson Enterprise, Shipyard Office

Time: 13:00, 3rd of November, 3301

CMDR Delta4Phoenix was a happy man. He had finally gathered enough funds to buy one of the 'Big Three', the Faulcon DeLacy Anaconda. An older design, the Anaconda class had stood the test of time, and was to this day the dream of many pilots. And now, he was going to buy one. When the salesperson finally arrived, that is. Her break should end soon. Until then, he waited in the lightly decorated office.

"Now you seem pretty happy. Finally married?"

Spluttering, the Commander turned towards the woman who had just entered the office, her nametag identifying her as Miranda Sonatra. A mischevious smirk on her face, and her emerald green eyes glinting with amusement at his reaction.

"Y-you know th-that I don't f-feel about her that way, Mira!", he finally cried out.

"You sure about that, _Commander Delta4Phoenix?_ You both already share a bed."

Smacking his head into the table in front of him, the Commander just groaned, while Miranda walked around the desk to sit down in her chair.

Pressing a few keys on the keyboard integrated into the desk, she turned on the holographic screen for her work, giggling at the sight of the independent pilot lying on her desk.

"I told you to just call me Delta..."

"And I won't, not as long as your reaction is this funny. It is your fault for choosing such a long name anyway."

Pulling himself back up from the desk, Delta shook his head in exasperation. Glaring slightly at the woman in front of him, he huffed his response.

"We both know that the short ones are already taken. I understand why the Pilots Federation requires us to take on these 'nicknames', but it is annoying sometimes."

The practice of using fake names was a long-standing tradition of the Pilots Federation. They served to protect relatives of independent pilots from the wrath of factions that had a grudge against a pilot. Since the implementation of these nicknames, the number of assassinations and abductions of families of pilots had gone down drastically. Some chose to not take on a nickname, or choose one that was similar to their real name or contained parts of it, but those also had to accept that the Pilots Federation would charge them if their families got attacked, while Commanders with unrelated nicknames got help from the Pilots Federation for free.

"Look on the bright side, yours is neither unpronounceable, insulting, or stupid.", the Miranda said cheerfully while working through her messages.

"I guess so... Still, I prefer being called Delta."

"Maybe one day I'll call you that. So, you want to buy an Anaconda?"

Surprised by her statement, Delta jumped in his seat slightly.

"How do you know that, Mira? I only told Ziola... she told you, didn't she?"

"Yes, she did, she also submitted a list of modifications. The ship is already waiting for you. We just need to handle the payment. You could also have contacted me without coming here, you know?"

"Yeah, but I prefer speaking to people personally for stuff like this. Especially when it is something as big as this. It is not every day one buys an Anaconda after all."

Shrugging, Miranda pulled up the necessary files to complete the transaction on her screen, which then automatically mirrored itself, so Delta could read them.

"Just put your signature here, and we'll send you the invoice for the ship. Sounds good?"

Delta nodded enthusiastically and grabbed a pen from the table, 'writing' his signature onto the hologram.

Taking a look at the signature, Miranda saved the document, turned the screen off and stood up.

"Alright, you wanna see your new ship?"

Delta jumped out of his chair in excitement, crying out: "YES! I-I mean, yeah, sure."

Giggling, Miranda led him out of her office, and down a few corridors to a large hangar. And there it was.

Resting on its landing gear, the ship quietly sat in the hangar, like a sleeping giant. It was still just coated in the light gray color of the primer coat, onto which a paint job could be applied. Maintenance personnel was everywhere in the hangar, checking the ship for any defects or holes in the primer.

Delta got pulled out of his stupor by a worker tapping him on the shoulder. Shaking his head, he looked at the orange-clad maintenance worker, a slightly elderly man with short, gray hair.

"We already removed the standard paint and prepared it for a new one. We also installed the modules you prepared for it. So if you choose a name and a paint job now, we can have her ready tomorrow."

"Sure. I already know which one I want."

Silently the ship waited. Tomorrow, it would get to do what it was made for: fly among the stars.


	4. Dossier 1: Life Support Systems (ED)

Type: Spacecraft/Station equipment  
Manufacturer: Sirius Atmospherics  
Description: The Sirius Atmospherics life support systems are installed in every ship across the galaxy, and used in every station. These systems provide food, water, and air recycling, as well as limited supplies in case of complete system failure. The more expensive models can provide more supplies, and are more power-efficient. Most shipowners opt for a D-rated system, due to the low weight. Larger versions can provide supplies for more people, but in theory, even a small system can be used in ships like the Anaconda.

In case of system failure, a supply of rations, oxygen canisters, and passive filters can be used to keep the crew alive, with E-rated life support having enough air for 5 days, and A-rated for 25 days. Should the ship be understaffed, the supplies can be redistributed to extend that time.


End file.
